Bringing Life to "Empty" Builds
Bukkit Shopkeepers is a plugin I think this server could greatly benefit from.
However, I'm unsure of how this plugin interacts with previous bukkkit plugins.
Seen here: http://dev.bukkit.org/bukkit-plugins/shopkeepers/
This would allow Villager Eggs to be used as a personal shopkeeper (or entity decoration) for users, if the egg is clicked on a chest. Imagine trading with a Skeleton for bones.
If the egg is clicked anywhere else (not onto a chest and not onto an air block) then a normal random villager entity will be the result.
This won't take away from the shop economy since a trade is much less likely to happen, but this could be an alternate way for getting neighbors to look around and interact with other builds.
Also, about the /headcount implication. -I think- this plugin will create a new "shopkeeper" entity. So the number of shopkeepers could be limited and set apart from the other headcounts.
I hope this could be a consideration for an additional plugin. It seems minimally invasive and a great way to populate builds and bring life to "empty" builds.
Sounds like a great idea.
My worry is the following:
You can now already do this stuff 100% in the existing shop system, but having the whole server as possible customers. Why would someone who wants to sell something put it where only 1-2 people can buy it there instead of somewhere where everyone can buy it?
I would really love playing on a server in which the economy would rely on such a system. I can already imagine shopping malls being developped near spawn in empire, kingdom and darkland.
There are some things that I don't like very much about the current shop system, but I understand that people might not want to change them:
- It provides free storage, I prefer stuff to be kept in chests.
- Sale prices such as "0,000001" are ridiculous, I think there should be a minimum unitary price for each item, the lowest of all being 0,01.
If it coexists with the current shop/uncs system, then it might be a lot of set-up work and worry for a very small result as people will keep on using the current magical shop.
By the way, we can easily populate buildings using name tagged mobs, now that we can buy name tags from villagers (see the "clerks" at my embassy, 4th floor).
By the way an idea struck me as I was writing this. Some people might hate me for it but..
..how about paying for "shop storage"? ;p
The server could calculate the minimum number of chests needed to store all of a player's "shop" and then charge x uncs per chest and per day.
Or more boldly it might charge x uncs per day per 1000 items.
While I agree to many of the points you made, there are some things which are impossible and others which have far reaching consequences:
We used to have a mall. Its a nightmare technologically. It works if you gave 10 people who play all the time but not with the amount of people that we have and the amkunt of people that come and go.
Changing minimum prices is all up my alley, its just a bigger project. We would gave to essentially start the economy from scratch and completely change the price of everything, from lots to votes etc. Can be done, but not justby setting a minimum price in the shop. Rotten meat cannot cost the same as sand.
I DO NOT propose this to replace the economy whatsoever. NO mall, NO changing of anything to do with the economy, the shop command works perfectly and is efficient. Shopkeepers would not be more efficient. Based off that, Uncoverians will be much more inclined to place their trades in the shop.
This is a pure cosmetic decision, to place shopkeepers/NPCs into builds.
That is it.
Steph made a good point:
By the way, we can easily populate buildings using name tagged mobs, now that we can buy name tags from villagers (see the “clerks” at my embassy, 4th floor).
Easily populating isn't my point. I'm talking about interaction.
What if all of the clerks in Steph's embassy could trade something, like a Written Book with a story inside of it? Or a map? Or a letter describing all of the floors? Heck, they could trade swiftness potions for a speedy tour. They could even give a cookie for the visitor on the way out.
This plugin would allow a more organic build experience. Instead of following signs bulking up the wall, or reading a story through the chat window you could get a book from an entity. Instead of having dispensers with signs on them, giving items, there could be a shopkeeper entity dispensing such things.
This plugin could also be useful for Adventure courses that people wish to make.
Also, the shopkeeper.entity is different than the villager.entity, so there will not be any "breeding" interference caused by villagers being on a separate y-axis. This is most bothersome when trying to utilize villagers for farming purposes (say you have a farm being tended by a villager @ y40 and a villager as a shopkeeper @ y64 - the farmer would not be able to harvest).
My reply was purely to what stephdeg said btw.
Yeah sorry about the diversion.. but I think the forum can do with a bit of life :)
By the way rotten meat is not such a great example, as it now can be converted into emeralds.
Flints on the other side are plain useless once you have, say, a stack (and that may already be a lot more than you'll ever need in your server's life).
I kinda saw where Alleywig was going with this one after looking at the plugin. It would be more useful as a population tool for empty cities, and allow interaction for players that were exploring. From looking only on a basic level, it appears a separate headcount could be set for these villagers as well, and maybe even the ability to make hostile mobs ignore them, thus zombies not killing them off.
Also, speaking of exploring, I see that we can no longer use doors on lots we have no perms on? So much harder to explore places now.
The doors are not supposed to be closed. Let me take a look at that.